Roman Empire Views on Homosexuality - 1501 Words

Roman Sexuality: Roman Attitudes toward Homosexuality A popular topic of discussion, when referring to historic Roman culture, is the topic of sexuality. Even more specific is the subject of Roman attitudes toward homosexuality. During the time period of 753 B.C. to 476 A.D. the Roman Empire was arguably one of the most powerful and advanced empires of its age. With such a powerful empire of citizens that were fixated on their pride and, for the males, masculinity, one must wonder what their thoughts on homosexuality were. Also, when discussing the Romans and homosexuality you must take into consideration that males were infatuated with themselves, including their physical appearance all the way down to the way that they operated†¦show more content†¦On the other hand, homosexuality as an identity is what the Romans had trouble accepting. It was very common for these homosexual activities to take place while the male had a wife. This introduces the topic of bisexuality and the inquiries that ask if homosexuality was still overlooked if the male did not have a wife as well that was his primary source for sexual activity. In the Roman Empire, the men that were open to having sexual acts done to them by other males were looked at differently, as previously mentioned. They were looked at differently in the sense that they were categorized as feminine, and with this idea in mind, the Roman men saw these feminine men as woman in a sense so they saw it fit or acceptable to have sex with these types of men. They were, in a way, creating neutralization to the homosexual activities that they were partaking in to make it into something that defined your masculinity for the positive. The following is an excerpt from the text Roman Homosexuality by (Williams 1999): â€Å"†¦Tendency to associate the receptive role with women, boys, and slaves and to construe adult men who display a desire to be penetrated as effeminate anomalies†¦ Fully gendered men might be perfectly content to express desire for the men they ridicule†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The above quote from Roman Homosexuality shows the reasoning behind the desire to engage in homosexual activity by males that areShow MoreRelatedThe Ass, The Witch, And The Roman Empire1232 Words   |  5 PagesThe Ass, the Witch, and the Roman Empire: Roman Society in The Golden Ass Apuleius’ The Golden Ass is the oldest Latin novel from around the era of the Roman Empire to survive in its entirety. Because of this fact, it means that this novel is a source of great insight into a first hand account, albeit with fictional prose, of Roman society through the eyes of a well-endowed male, Lucius, the narrator of the novel. 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